Govt to soon come up with spectrum sharing, trading guidelines

NEW DELHI: Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg has said that the government is likely to come up with spectrum sharing and trading guidelines in three months.

“Spectrum sharing and trading guidelines are now one of the key things in our agenda. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has already given its recommendations. In the next three months, we will be in a position to give out spectrum sharing and trading guidelines,” Garg said in an interview with a publication.

The new penalty rules will be out in one-and- a-half months, he added.

The spectrum sharing guidelines will allow telcos to share their unused spectrum with their peers in the same telecom circle. The sharing is likely to raise efficient use of spectrum by enabling all the telecom operators to trade in it.

Last year, TRAI had recommended that telecom firms could share airwaves held by operators even at an old price of Rs 1,658 crore or assigned without auction.

In the recently-concluded spectrum auction, the government has raked in Rs 1,09,874.91 crore in over 19 days with 115 rounds of bidding. The government drew flak for keeping the reserve price higher for spectrum auction.

The government had fixed a reserve price of Rs 3,423 crore per MHz for 800 MHz frequency, Rs 3,399 crore for 900 MHz band, Rs 1,425 crore for 1,800 MHz band and Rs 3,511 crore per MHz for 3G spectrum.

However, rubbishing the charges that the government designed auction with interest to maximise its revenues, Garg said: “If this was our intention, why we would have offered extra spectrum in auction? The auction that came up from expiring licences was about 35 per cent of total spectrum put for sale. The 2100 Mhz band spectrum auction was pending since last 7-8 years. Our Minister (Ravi Shankar Prasad) showed will to resolve it and we were able to get 5 Mhz of 2100 Mhz band for auction,” Garg said. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said this was the most successful spectrum auction in India’s history. The annual load on telecom operators will be about Rs 5,300 crore…and (it will lead to a rise of) 1.3 paise per minute for a call. “I am seeing a huge campaign that mobile rates will go up. A person very familiar with the telecom sector has given me an analysis. The spectrum will be with operators for 20 years. According to the analysis, the annual load on telecom operators will be about Rs 5,300 crore…and (it will lead to a rise of) 1.3 paise per minute for a call,” Prasad said.